One Life
by ravendream
Summary: [oneshot, NaotaxMamimi] 18year old Naota is still suffocating in Mabase, in the brittle sketch of a relationship with Ninamori. That is, until a certain someone comes back for him.


A/N: Despite a rabid love for the show, I've never written any FLCL fanfiction... This was a completely random impulse that just popped into my head after watching the series again with my mom who had never seen it, and we had a discussion about Mamimi vs. Haruka and both their relationships with Naota.

That, and I just want to see both of them have a happy ending. Mamimi may have been messed up, but there was a normal girl in there somewhere. And Naota kind of was just screwed over by everyone.

It might be slightly ooc, a bit choppy, and maybe a bit stupid (Okay, so it's downright horrible)... but hey, can't blame me for trying :)

**One Life**  
By Bunny-Chan  
08.08.06 

I moved out of the bed silently, even though I knew waking Ninamori was nearly impossible. I spotted my clothes in the far corner of the room and got dressed as quickly as I could.

Ninamori and I... we weren't _together_ really. Just together.

Our relationship was based on two things: I just wanted to feel. She just wanted to not be alone.

After the disappearance of Haruko, I really felt like I'd lost something. She was something new. In a way, she'd forced me to both grow up and become more carefree at the same time- something I was beyond grateful for.

And when Samejima Mamimi left... I really felt like I'd lost _everything_.

As soon as she was able to, Ninamori had moved out of her home and into an apartment still paid for by her father. She said it was a need for independence, but I knew that wasn't true. She wanted out of her house. She wanted away from the dysfunctional life that had been suffocating her for years.

It was in that very apartment that I moved through now, heading to the doorway.

I couldn't remember when we'd started seeing each other every night. It had been for a long time though. It wasn't like my father cared where I was, so I just left when I felt like it, sometimes not even returning home after school. We always tried to be subtle, but every once in awhile we forgot a change of clothes or the alarm wouldn't sound, and we'd show up to class together in wrinkled, disorganized uniforms. No one asked.

I left the apartment quietly, knowing Ninamori would be thankful for the privacy. It was a Saturday morning, clear and sunny.

I was nearly home when the impulse hit.

To this day, I don't know what clicked inside me, but I turned around and ran toward the river as fast as I could.

* * *

When I reached the river, I was shocked to see that someone was there.

Moving closer, the shadows under the bridge ebbed enough to show off red hair...

"No... You... You..." I couldn't finish the sentence. I didn't even realized I'd spoken it, but I know the other person must have heard me, because she scrambled up suddenly, clutching a shoulder bag to her chest, as if she was scared she had been caught.

When she turned, my vision consisted of nothing but red hair and bright brown eyes. Her full lips were open in shock, but she recovered much more quickly than myself.

She held out a magazine. The cover had a picture of her on it, her name in bold next to the image.

"I did it, chief."

Standing before me was Samejima Mamimi.

She hadn't changed much in the past six years.

Dull red hair fell slightly past her shoulders, falling in a slight wave.

She had abandoned her schoolgirl uniform, obviously, and replaced it with a button up lavender shirt and black knee-length skirt.

She almost looked professional, with the exception of a pair of green flipflops on her feet.

She looked like an adult.

"Mamimi..."

"Can I call you Takkun again yet, chief?"

"What...?" I thought for a moment. The nickname rang in my mind. The question seemed bizarre though. Why wouldn't she?

"Remember? You said 'My name is Naota'." She looked almost sad, not looking directly at me.

And yes, when she said that, I did remember.

* * *

_As if life wasn't hard enough already, I'd sprouted yet another destruction-crazed giant from my head while desperately trying to convince Mamimi that I felt nothing for Haruko. A destruction-crazed giant that was carrying both of us on top of it. _

_I tried to hold onto her, but when Haruko began attacking the creature, I let go for a moment. _

_That was when I heard it. _

_"Tasuku... Help me sempai!" My mouth fell open in shock and I looked at Mamimi, who was pressing her hands to her ears. _

_"My brother?" _

_"I don't wanna be here anymore! Tasuku! Tasuku. Tasuku." She just kept repeating his name. _His_ name. Not mine. _

_  
The name of the boy who had abandoned her. Not the name of the one who had been taking care of her ever since. _

_"Don't call my brother! Hey- Look at me!" Still, she repeated his name. It was driving me over the edge and I knew I couldn't stand there listening to her continue. " I'm the one who's here! I'm the one who's gonna save you!" With amazing energy, I called for Kanti. I heard him crash behind me, and it was then that Mamimi spun around to look at me. "Now listen, my name is Naota!" I yelled. Her eyes went wide. "Don't ever call me Takkun again!"_

* * *

Those were the last words I had said to her.

When she told me she was leaving, I didn't say anything. I ran after her when she left, but couldn't find her. She wasn't at the river. She wasn't at home. She seemed to be nowhere in town. And so that was how it had ended.

Until now.

"I don't care..." I whispered. I was still too awestruck to speak.

"..." She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped. She looked as if she were thinking it over, then carefully said, "...Takkun?"

I blinked away the shock and stepped toward her, afraid she might disappear. Afraid she wasn't really there. When she didn't fade away, I walked closer.

We were the same height now- a strange feeling.

I reached out a hand, brushing the fingers against the sleeve of her shirt. I felt fabric underneath them. I lightly put my hand on her arm.

She was real.

It was then that I pulled her toward me.

I hadn't tried to kiss her since the day I'd told her off. When I'd tried then, she'd held back, taking her height as an advantage. I couldn't reach far enough. She'd just stood there, telling me to admit I liked Haruko. The only time I'd been the one to attempt initiating anything. The first display of affection that _I'd_ given _her_.

This time, she didn't say a word.

She didn't pull back.

Just so you know, it was worth waiting six years.

After a moment, I stepped back, putting a small space between us.

Her brown eyes raised themselves to mine.

"I did it, Takkun."

"Did what?"

"I grew up, just like everyone told me to. See, Takkun?" She held up the magazine again and pointed to her picture. "I've got a job. A real one, too. Better than my parents. I get to take pictures all the time." Suddenly her eyes teared up. She bit her lip and looked down. "It's lonely, Takkun. Everyone says you have to grow up and move on... but they never tell you that you'll be alone."

We stood there in silence for what seemed like hours, before Mamimi looked up at me again.

"Come with me, chief. Come to Tokyo with me."

That was how I found myself in her car, the fuzzy radio station turned up as loud as it would go. The farther we got from that diseased town, the clearer the music got.

I looked at Mabase's reflection in the side mirror and thought of what I was leaving behind. An apathetic girlfriend, a drunken father, and a grandfather who couldn't care less. A town where everyone was messed up in one way or another.

Mamimi had always been the worst of us. She couldn't grow up. She took pictures to keep things the same forever. She obsessed over my brother, her first boyfriend, wanting him back. She had burned down a school as a child, and was occasionally guilty of burning down another small building.

Now, she seemed almost normal.

But when her problems disappeared, they took something else with them.

To this day I don't know what it was. It was just a "Mamimi-quality", I guess.

I hated the change. She wasn't the same, and never would be again.

But she was all I had. My only escape from a life that I'd been barely getting through.

In a way, she was the new Haruko for me. She offered proof that there was something more. Something beyond the buildings of a town where nothing ever happens or changes.

But unlike the real Haruko, Mamimi was really offering me freedom. Haruko had left me, telling me I was just a kid.

For the first time in my life, I knew I'd made the right choice.

* * *

A/N: Wow... Um. Yeah.

Thankfully, it was quite fulfilling to write. But something tells me it's not a very good read... I dunno.

I don't know why I changed Mamimi... and actually, I'd planned on this being less of a "Yeah they ran into each other and drove off into the sunset" story, and instead something more substantial. It wouldn't be the first story that's run away from me though.

It was worth a shot.


End file.
